Campaign to relocate school put on hold

A CAMPAIGN to relocate and expand Goring Primary School has been put on hold.

Parents and governors want the Wallingford Road school to move to a larger site as it has already exceeded its capacity of 212 pupils and even children living in the village have been refused places.

They say a school with about 315 places could be built on a 2.8-hectare field behind the houses in Springhill Road, which has been provisionally earmarked for about 40 homes under the Goring neighbourhood plan.

However, they have temporarily shelved their campaign after Oxfordshire County Council, the education authority, said there was no proven need as there is still space at schools in surrounding villages. The council also said a larger school could draw pupils out of the smaller villages, making their primary schools unviable.

The campaigners have agreed to draw up plans for a new school of the same size which could be expanded at a later date. They believe this is necessary as the existing school buildings date back to the Sixties and would be costly to refurbish.

A spokeswoman for the governors said the proposal should be readt in a few months’ time and then made public.

The county council believes the school could extend on to Bourdillon Field, which is next door, and funded by statutory contributions from developers building new homes in Goring. However, it says it is willing to consider other proposals.